I was first introduced to Phil Kline’s music, ironically enough, through an environmental science project. We were doing a project on an endangered species, and I just so happened to pick Bachman’s Warbler, a species of little yellow birds. It’s not officially extinct yet, but the creature’s last confirmed sighting was in Louisiana, 1988.

I was looking for possible videos of Bachman’s Warbler, but the only Youtube result was a little video, clearly music, by Phil Kline – Topic. Naturally, I clicked it and was slowly transported into a realm of music I had never been to before. ‘Sound Art,’ as Kline’s website calls his unique style.

It takes a few seconds, but while listening to Bachman’s Warbler there truly is this feeling of loneliness and a sense of melancholy. The song starts quiet, but slowly increases in volume throughout its 16 minutes a 34-second run. The longer you listen to Bachman’s Warbler, the more you pay attention, the more haunting it gets. To me, the idea of an entire creature going extinct, the last of your kind…it gives me the shivers.

But why am I talking about this bird when the blog title is ‘Phil Kline and an Introduction to Sound Art?’? Well, as it turns out, Kline is a lot like Bachman’s Warbler. His music style is dead.

See, he doesn’t use computers. Not a single note in his haunting note loop is artificially made. Bachman’s Warbler was released in 1992. So how did he do it?

According to his website, Kline “used dozens or even hundreds of boombox tape players” for his music.  

This simple fact is in no way more evident than in his most famous piece, Unsilent Night, in an album of the same name. You really have to listen to the piece on your own, preferably with headphones. Kline somehow creates this stunningly beautiful cacophony, mimicking a busy city night without anything modern. Just boomboxes and creativity.
His art disorients you, while also putting you in the calmest trance…it’s the most eerily peaceful thing I’ve felt in awhile. It’s also only five minutes and 56 seconds of your time.

Yet despite being a brilliant composer and crafting masterfully creative pieces, his period of recognition was rather short. Unsilent Night and Bachman’s Warbler were classics of 1992, and he slowly declined in popularity from there, despite creating “a sound no one had heard before.”

Now, a small collection of his pieces sit on Youtube with less than 1000 views total.
Only four of his Phil Kline – Topic’s videos have a likes. His classics, Unsilent Night and Bachman’s Warbler, along with a mysterious and unsettling piece titled Fantasy on One Note, and his most recent upload, Franz in the Underworld. Each with completely different sounds, but one thing in common.

They’re all my favorites of his work. The one like those four videos have is from me. 

If you have any interest in his unique sound, his intriguing auditory atmosphere, or even the unsettling mood his songs seem to create, I highly recommend check his stuff out.
It’s easily accessible on YouTube and deserves a much larger audience of confused yet mesmerized ears.